Ross Douthat

How Obama Loses

By ROSS DOUTHAT

June 3, 2011

I didn’t care much for Mitt Romney’s speech yesterday announcing his presidential bid. It struck me as vintage Romney, by which I mean it resembled a somewhat tin-eared consultant’s idea of the kind of political speech right-wing primary voters want to hear. (Okay, now the anti-European boilerplate: “The President seems to take his inspiration not from the small towns and villages of New Hampshire but from the capitals of Europe.” Now the hyperbole: “We are only inches away from ceasing to be a free market economy.” Now the completely non-specific promises to cut spending: “I will cap federal spending at 20% or less of the GDP and finally, finally balance the budget.” Now the clunky one-liner: “You know, if you want to create jobs, it helps to have had a job.” Now wait for the applause …)

But as unappealing and inauthentic as I found it, the speech still had a pretty effective hook:

A few years ago, Americans did something that was, actually, very much the sort of thing Americans like to do: We gave someone new a chance to lead; someone we hadn’t known for very long, who didn’t have much of a record but promised to lead us to a better place.

… Now, in the third year of his four-year term, we have more than promises and slogans to go by.

Barack Obama has failed America.

When he took office, the economy was in recession. He made it worse. And he made it last longer.

Three years later, over 16 million Americans are out of work or have just quit looking. Millions more are underemployed.

Three years later, unemployment is still above 8%, a figure he said his stimulus would keep from happening.

Three years later, foreclosures are still at record levels.

Three years later the prices of homes continue to fall.

Three years later, our national debt has grown nearly as large as our entire economy.

Families are buried under higher prices for food and higher prices for gasoline.

Is this fair? Well, no, in the sense that the occupant of the Oval Office has far less control over the economic picture than politicians of either party would like you to believe. (Gene Healy recently reminded me of Hillary Clinton’s bizarre-yet-typical promise to be “commander-in-chief of the economy.”) But yes, in the sense that these somewhat-unfair lines are the ones presidential elections are usually fought on — the last one, to then-candidate Obama’s great benefit, very much included. And for now, whatever you think of Mitt Romney (or Tim Pawlenty, or Jon Huntsman, or some Mystery Contender to come), it looks like the Republican nominee is going to be able to throw some pretty devastating punches at the president’s economic stewardship.